Chapter 134, Peacemaker (Part 2)
United States, Florida, Homestead Air Force Base, located outside of Miami, at the southern tip of the Florida Peninsula
Accompanied by the clear ringing of electric bells and the noisy shouts of ground staff, a group of giant silver-colored creatures appeared on the runway of the airport.
They are the largest military bomber in the world, the B-36 "Peacemaker" with six propellers.
This is an ultra-long-range strategic bomber that has set many records: it is the largest piston engine aircraft put into mass production in history, it is also the military aircraft with the largest wingspan in history, and it is also the first aircraft that can be mounted without modification. A bomber carrying every type of atomic bomb then in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and the first truly ultra-long-range strategic bomber ever capable of carrying out intercontinental bombing missions across oceans.
Among the aircraft flying in the sky in this era, the B-36 is an absolute "giant in the sky." The public relations department of Convair, which produced it, once published an article titled "Believe it or Not" to express Public Portrayals of the B-36 "Peacemaker" It is huge: the maximum take-off weight is as high as 186 tons, which is equivalent to three B-29 bombers, the largest bomber during World War II; it can load 39 tons of bombs, which is equivalent to lifting a B-24 (fully loaded) and another one at the same time. P-47; its ten engines can Producing 44,000 horsepower, equivalent to nine locomotives or 400 military trucks, or even two World War I-era coal-fired boiler "dreadnoughts" (the total power of the Dreadnought battleship was only 22,000 five hundred horsepower); and in order to drive such a powerful engine Its engine carries enough fuel for a diesel locomotive to travel around the earth ten times; its high-altitude de-icing system can provide enough heating for a hotel with 600 rooms; its wingspan reaches 70 meters, which is equivalent to that of Wright Twice the distance of the brothers' first flight!
——Compared with the size of a super behemoth like the B-36 "Peacemaker", even the B-29 Super Flying Fortress appears to be extremely small.
However, don't look at the B-36 "Peacemaker", which is so huge and bloated. It has six piston engines (each with a power of up to 3,800 horsepower) and four turbojet engines (with a maximum thrust of 23 kilonewtons each). Under full push, it can reach a maximum speed of 685-700 kilometers/hour in combat status, which is almost the same as the fastest fighter jet during World War II. Its ultimate flight altitude can reach 20,000 meters, reaching the stratosphere. There are also up to sixteen self-defense artillery pieces (six movable remote-controlled turrets are equipped with double-barreled 20mm cannons, and two 20mm cannons are installed on the nose and tail turrets). Of course, compared with previous American bombers, the most significant improvement of the B-36 lies in its bomb load and range: during World War II, even the famous B-29 "Super Flying Fortress" strategic bomber had a maximum The bomb load was only nine tons, while the B-36 could carry thirty-nine tons of ammunition (including the heaviest ammunition at the time). magnitude nuclear bomb); the B-29 has a maximum range of 6,700 kilometers, while the B-36 has an astonishing 12,000 to 16,000 kilometers (the maximum range of each model of B-36 is slightly different, The original model had a maximum range of only 12,000 kilometers) - in other words, there was almost no target on earth that was not within its destruction range. But ironically, it is such an aircraft that is carefully prepared for a devastating nuclear war that has been given the nickname "PeaceMaker" by the U.S. Air Force!
But think about it from another angle, this nickname seems quite appropriate - nuclear bombs bring peace!
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An unprecedented super aerial behemoth like the B-36 has obviously surpassed the technological and industrial level at the time to a certain extent, and has caused a lot of practical operational problems. For example, the noise produced by a nearly six-meter-diameter propeller cutting through the air at high altitudes is so huge that it makes the crew feel as if they are in a noisy printing workshop. If they work for a long time, they may even be in danger of hearing loss. .
What is even more criticized is that the propeller of the B-36 "Peacemaker" is installed at the rear instead of the common front. In other words, it uses a rare push-type propeller instead of the common pull-in type. As a result, this kind of engine layout leads to insufficient airflow entering the engine - probably because it is blocked by the front wing. Insufficient airflow will cause insufficient air cooling, which will cause the engine to easily overheat and even misfire: all models B-36 bombers have suffered from engine overheating, which has led to many horrific mid-air fire accidents.
As the first batch of trial products in service, the twelve B-36 "Peacemakers" currently appearing at Homestead Air Force Base in Florida are full of various minor problems, including engine overheating. The situation is simply heartbreaking. The crew members who have been in the sky complained that the B-36 ultra-long-range bomber they operated had "two engines burning as soon as it took off, and two engines were overheated and ready to turn into a big fireball at any time"... But despite this In this way, despite the heavy military orders, these pilots gritted their teeth and wrote their wills in the face of the Pentagon's strict orders, and then loaded up their atomic bombs, incendiary bombs, high-explosive bombs and propaganda bombs with great anxiety, and embarked on a journey to South America...
Fortunately, after a few hours of long-distance flight, four B-36 "Peacemaker" broke down midway and had to make a temporary landing, and the Pentagon was also forced to reduce the target of nuclear explosions, leaving another one in the Andes Mountains. Chile on one side marked the target range for the first round of nuclear explosions. But the remaining eight B-36 bombers, including four B-36 bombers carrying atomic bombs, successfully reached Brazil's southern border.
Then, the death nightmare that had been staged many times in Eurasia finally befell the naive and romantic people of South America.
——Faced with the B-36 "Peacemaker" ultra-long-range strategic bomber attacking at full speed from an altitude of 14,000 meters, in this era before surface-to-air missiles, even if the air defense early warning radar responded in advance, the ground's Anti-aircraft guns cannot reach such a height, and even if fighter jets have time to take off to attack, they often cannot fly so high - especially when the armaments of South American countries are generally backward and there are basically no advanced aircraft.
What's more, the B-36 "Peacemaker" is thicker, tougher, and more durable than the B-29. The self-defense firepower on the bomber is also not vegetarian. If you want to knock it out of the sky with a thin single-engine fighter , is simply equivalent to asking a group of cats to hunt wild boars...
Therefore, the eight B-36 "Peacemaker" ultra-long-range bombers advancing at full speed easily broke through the weak resistance of South American countries, sowing the Pandora's box of death and destruction in La Pla, the most fertile and rich land in South America. On the tower plain.
The first target of the nuclear explosion was Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, on the banks of the Rio de la Plata. A 40,000-ton atomic bomb accurately hit the city. Two people, including President Peron and his wife, One hundred thousand citizens died on the spot, and the entire Argentine central government was wiped out. Then, Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, on the other side of the Rio de la Plata, and two cities in northern Argentina, La Plata and Rosario, were also hit by a nuclear bomb... In addition, there were other Several Argentinian cities were also bombed by conventional B-36s and had warning leaflets dropped. On the other hand, Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, escaped for the time being because it was raining and the sky was covered with clouds, making it impossible for the bombers to see the ground clearly from a high altitude. Due to this sudden change in the rear, the three-nation anti-American coalition forces that had originally advanced deep into Brazil were forced to temporarily stagnate.
However, for South America, which had been away from the war for too long, this was only the first wave of "Bald Eagle Punishment"... Three days later, a fleet of B-36 "Peacemaker" aircraft loaded with atomic bombs roared in again , dropping more atomic bombs on other cities in the La Plata River Basin. Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, was not spared this time and was razed to the ground by an atomic bomb. The temporary anchorage of the Soviet Atlantic Fleet, the important town of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil, which had been occupied by the anti-American coalition forces, also suffered a nuclear explosion this time. The entire fleet suffered heavy losses and was on the verge of collapse.
On the other side, facing the rampant nuclear offensive of the U.S. imperialist strategic air force, the strategic nuclear strike force of the Soviet socialist camp was not to be outdone. It immediately decided to use eye for eye, tooth for tooth, nuclear bomb for nuclear bomb, and dispatched the latest trans-Pacific relay transfer force. The overcoming long-range bomber group took off from the front-line air force base that had just been completed in the port of Antofagasta in northern Chile. It targeted Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, as well as cities such as Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The construction was also seen from satellite reconnaissance. Large airport places, front and back A total of twenty atomic bombs were dropped in batches, completely ravaging the essence of Brazil, bombing the largest country in South America into a state of anarchy, and destroying five B-36 "Peacemaker" on the ground. --Due to the fact that three of the B-36" and The "Peace Builder" also carried American atomic bombs. As a result, it caused an extremely serious and large-scale nuclear leakage after being destroyed, which brought huge trouble to the cleanup and reconstruction work: if anyone will clean up this pile of radioactive ruins in the future If...
In addition, the Soviet Air Force also nuclear bombed Sucre, the capital of Bolivia - because after the United States nuclear bombed Argentina and other countries, the Bolivian government, which had just ceased war and surrendered, felt that a turning point was coming, and immediately tore up the armistice agreement and once again joined the allied camp led by the United States. , trying to take the opportunity to fake it to neighboring countries They were so powerful, but they forgot that the Soviet strategic bombers were still beside them... As a result, the Bolivian government's pretentiousness turned into seeking death in the blink of an eye. The capital Sucre and most of the central government staff were all under the Soviet atomic bomb. Turned into ashes in the mushroom cloud...
Next, this kind of mutually stabbing nuclear attacks continues - since all large airports in Brazil have been destroyed, for the sake of safety, the B-36 "Peacemaker" fleet that lost the Brazilian relay station has to shrink its combat radius. , no longer attempted an expedition to Chile and Argentina, but shifted the target of punitive nuclear bombings to the northern part of South America, Ecuador and Peru, which are closer to the United States, and successively bombed Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and Lima, the capital of Peru. The Soviet Union retaliated in kind, first launching a nuclear strike on Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and then nuclear bombing the colonial capitals of the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom in Guyana, South America, forcing the governments of these three countries to move to the Caribbean again, such as Churchill The British Empire The rebellious government moved to the Cayman Islands, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands moved her court and cabinet in exile to the Antilles, and de Gaulle's Free French Organization moved to Martinique... Fortunately, these old powers are really home. The cause is great, and there is land available for settling down wherever you go.
Due to the technological limitations of this era, the strategic air forces of the United States and the Soviet Union could relatively easily penetrate defenses at high altitudes and drop atomic bombs on enemy cities, but it was difficult for them to establish a solid homeland air defense system to intercept enemy bombers carrying nuclear bombs outside the country. ——As a result, as one mushroom cloud after another rose in the sky over the land of Latin America, all the people of South America, who were once romantic and optimistic, had to seriously face a desperate multiple-choice question: Do you choose the U.S. atomic bomb? , or choose the Soviet atomic bomb? No matter which one you choose, you can still die without any bones left!
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By the end of 1947, apart from Chile, which was the most remote in geographical location, there was also Colombia, which was deeply mired in the red-white civil war and inextricably fought. It was a blessing in disguise that it had escaped disaster and had not yet been hit by a nuclear bomb. All other South American countries, whether pro-American or anti-American, have withstood the bombing of more than one atomic bomb. Major cities were reduced to radioactive ruins in mushroom clouds, and tens of millions of people died.
Moreover, after enduring the saturation bombardment of nuclear bombs, the vast majority of South American countries fell into a dark age in which government functions collapsed and social order collapsed. As for the ground war between the pro-American and anti-American camps, it has basically stopped. Because the rear of the country was destroyed by nuclear explosions, all armies fell into an unprecedented dilemma of paralyzed command and severed logistics, and their morale was so low that it collapsed. At the point where there is no point in continuing to fight.
It can be seen from this that the B-36 ultra-long-range bomber equipped with atomic bombs really lives up to its name as a "peacemaker" - after all, war still needs people to start it, as long as everyone is almost dead. , the war will inevitably end, and the world will naturally become peaceful...
As nuclear retaliation and counter-retaliation continue to escalate, hundreds of mushroom clouds have risen one after another across South America. Seeing the U.S. military deploying such a scorched-earth strategy, the Russians couldn't help but think of their own country's past of using General Winter and burning Moscow to drag Emperor Napoleon to death. So after repeatedly weighing their commands, the Kremlin had to give up completely. The plan was to "move forward in one go and use South America as a springboard to attack the United States", but instead recalled the fleet and aviation sent to South America, leaving a mess full of radioactive ruins to the Americans again.
The Pentagon, which was also exhausted, had no intention of taking over this hot potato. After confirming that the combined fleets of the Soviet Union and the Japanese Navy had withdrawn, it stopped bombing South American countries and withdrew ground troops trapped in Brazil and other places. After coming out, they only left some miscellaneous troops symbolically in a few coastal strongholds. Then they retreated to the mainland to lick their wounds and recuperate, leaving the South American countries that "restored peace" to fend for themselves.
In this way, this round of life-and-death contest between the United States and the Soviet Union in South America came to an end with the countries in South America suffering devastating blows. Then, humans on the entire earth faced the coldest winter of this century amid unprecedented catastrophes of hunger, war, and turmoil...